Okay, upon deeper reflection and thought, I retract my accusation. Yeah, Whedon dad issues trump most people's.
*If* the hunt went well and John didn't feel the need to make immediate notes, or *if* the hunt went bad and John had to find medical aid, he might not have noticed the absence of the journal. Those are the only things I can see saving Dean's butt. Because it would have been Dean who paid, of course. First for not keeping an adequate eye on Sam, second for allowing Sam to steal the journal without being detected, and third because John wouldn't yell at his baby boy.
Were the brothers supposed to be 13 and 9 in this ep's flashbacks? They showed the date, didn't they? My failure at subtraction is showing.
Were the brothers supposed to be 13 and 9 in this ep's flashbacks?
It was Christmas 1991, which would make Sammy 8 and Dean 12, almost 13.
Okay, do I need to point out the irony here, that if Sam is 8 or 9 in this ep, that the Dean of, "When you were little, you couldn't have been more than five...I just wanted you to stay a kid. Just a little longer." would have been a nine-year-old Dean.
Already jaded. At nine. You really are damaged, Dean.
(That was a really jaded 12-year-old, by the way. And also maybe harboring a wee bit of resentment against Sam, who still got to be innocent and not know what really happened to their mom and what is out there in the dark?)
(That was a really jaded 12-year-old, by the way. And also maybe harboring a wee bit of resentment against Sam, who still got to be innocent and not know what really happened to their mom and what is out there in the dark?)
And yet, still doing his best to make sure that Sam believes that their dad came through.
And yet, still doing his best to make sure that Sam believes that their dad came through.
::gets misty, yet again::
t handwave
John left an abbreviated version of the journal (loose-leaf: easy to abbreviate) for Dean to study. He wasn't supposed to let Sam know he was looking at it, but he wasn't good enough at hiding the pages in Hot Rod.
t /handwave
Because it would have been Dean who paid, of course. First for not keeping an adequate eye on Sam, second for allowing Sam to steal the journal without being detected, and third because John wouldn't yell at his baby boy.
?? We have no canonical evidence that he was ever more punish-y to Dean than to Sam. Expected more out of Dean, yes, since they're considerably different in age. But that's a big leap to blaming the older kid for something the younger kid does.
And whoa do we have evidence that John
did and
would
yell at his baby boy, because they did it to each other in DMB, and it was obvious they were on the nine millionth verse of the same song. (Whereas, he takes it remarkably well when Dean talks back at him angrily, in Salvation.)
I tend to think that the only way he'd have punished Dean for that one is if Dean had decided it was a bright idea to cover for Sammy.
